Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Utilities, Healthcare and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 added 0.26%, while the SBF 120 index gained 0.25%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Vinci SA (PA:SGEF), which rose 4.68% or 3.05 points to trade at 68.27 at the close. Veolia Environnement VE SA (PA:VIE) added 3.60% or 0.560 points to end at 16.105 and Danone SA (PA:DANO) was up 2.38% or 1.41 points to 60.65 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Credit Agricole SA (PA:CAGR), which lost 2.27% or 0.265 points to trade at 11.415 in late trade. Societe Generale (PA:SOGN) declined 2.07% or 0.91 points to end at 42.73 and BNP Paribas SA (PA:BNPP) shed 1.91% or 1.09 points to 56.06.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Air France KLM SA (PA:AIRF) which rose 4.84% to 5.048, Vinci SA (PA:SGEF) which was up 4.68% to settle at 68.27 and Spie SA (PA:SPIE) which gained 4.62% to close at 21.950.
The worst performers were Vallourec (PA:VLLP) which was down 3.17% to 6.171 in late trade, Natixis (PA:CNAT) which lost 3.17% to settle at 5.228 and Nexans (PA:NEXS) which was down 3.04% to 52.68 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 322 to 293 and 105 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 1.09% to 16.27.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.68% or 8.35 to $1244.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.44% or 0.23 to hit $52.40 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.33% or 0.18 to trade at $55.23 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.22% to 1.0703, while EUR/GBP unchanged 0.00% to 0.8542.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.28% at 100.11.